Uzbekistan, Arianna, 10.1.22 

It didn’t take much research to see that if I wanted to go for a cuisine which would be different than most of the ones we’ve done so far, and which would take me outside my cooking-comfort zone, it would have to be Uzbek.

This near-eastern Muslim country sits on the crossroads between India, Russia, and the Middle-East – smack-bang on the old Silk Road – and its kitchen reflects this beautifully.  It’s heavy on lamb, root veg and rice, and dumplings. Lots and lots of dumplings, of any variety and size you can think of. 

To become acquainted with this food I read this lovely travel/ food blog by Nick Wheatley: Wandering Wheatlys ; It gives an informative and enthusiastic account of Uzbek food (as well as others), and was instrumental in my understanding of this cuisine.

I wanted to give this rich culinary tradition a respectful representation, but without driving myself crazy with processes. So I picked a few dishes which would make for a decent balance of tricky and straight forward, and of heavy and light dishes:

Shurpa: a rich and heady lamb & veg soup

Plov: a seasoned lamb and rice dish, reminiscent of a biryani or pilaf

And two kinds of dumplings: Fried and Steamed.

Alongside these I served a coarse, simple salad of tomatoes, cucumber, and onion, seasoned with lemon juice, olive oil, salt & pepper.

For dessert I served the super-traditional (mandatory, really) tea (with gorgeous crystal-sugar stirrers), and bought halva, dried fruit, and candied nuts. Apparently these are the most common things to serve as dessert in Uzbekistan. So what if it’s also a lucky, shameless cop-out of actually preparing a dessert from scratch?? Shshsh.

I would have loved to complete the Uzbek theme with décor and outfits, but couldn’t do it properly without exploding my budget. So Bernhard came up with a cool substitute: he screened tourism videos from Uzbekistan in a loop on my projector-screen setup, with a traditional soundtrack to match, as a backdrop for our meal.  Eventually our eyes grew tired of the up-close changing images, but it was a fun way to accompany the dinner for a while :-). 

So, to business: First – shopping for ingredients. Again I was thrilled and grateful for the wonderful diversity of my neighbourhood (north Finchley): I found everything I needed amongst the Persian, Turkish, and east-Asian food shops around here, as well as some handy tips on how to use them best.

The Shurpa soup was pretty straightforward to make. It had one interesting aspect though: the lamb shank was to be cooked whole, on the bone, in the soup (first seared on oil with the onion, then boiled with the rest of the ingredients); at no point did the recipe indicate the meat should be cut to serve. It just says ‘cook until fork-tender. So I did that, and then took the meat apart with two forks into bite-size pieces before serving. It worked perfectly. 

The Plov was very satisfying to make. Again you start by searing lamb meat (this time in chunks), then adding sliced onions and grated carrots (which lent the whole dish sweetness and moisture – an inspired idea). Then the recipe asks for whole heads of garlic, which I thought was really weird – but we ended up with a beautiful, soft head of garlic each, to scoop the deep, earthy paste out of. Fabulous.

The rice – which had previously stood in warm water and then washed of excess starch – goes in one layer on top of all the rest, then covered with boiling water (that’s important: adding cold water at this point would shrink and rubberise the meat).  When that was cooked and ready, removing the lid and taking in all the spiced steam was simply magical. 

This was the first time I tried Barberries – which are a bit like cranberries but more delicate. I’ll defo use those in other dishes. 

Now for the Dumplings. I had never made dumplings before, and I must admit that I was more than a little intimidated. So I was very grateful when Idit agreed to come over and make the first batch with me: she’d made dumplings for her Russian dinner, which made her an expert in my eyes! (but seriously, she’s a formidable cook). 

So: making the Manti (steamed beef & veg filled dumplings) was certainly fiddly and time consuming, but not as difficult as I feared. The dough recipe resulted in a smooth, stretchy dough which was great to work with, so as long as we were sure to flour the table-top and rolling pin nothing stuck or became a squishy mess.

Under Idit’s calm and confident lead we soon fell into an industrious rhythm of cutting, filling, and folding, chatting and gossiping like a pair of old Slavic housewives:

I kept the raw dumplings in the fridge to steam the next day, to be made fresh and served hot (I borrowed my mom’s bamboo steamer for that). 

Now, I definitely wanted to make another, different type of dumpling – fried or baked. And I wanted to vary the filling, and avoid yet another – fourth – meat dish. 

The only savoury, non-meat dumpling recipe I found was filled with an egg and milk mix – like a raw omelette (Tuxum Barak). But I confess that the prospect of having to pour liquid mix into an almost-sealed raw pastry pocket, filled me with dread. There was no way I was going to attempt something so tricky on my first crack at dumplings. So I totally chickened out and cheated a bit. 

Bite me.

What I did instead was soft-boil a bunch of eggs, then chop and mix that with fried onion, salt and pepper. I used the same excellent dough recipe, flattened and spread it, but cut it into circles this time – rather than the Manti squares – to create crescent-shaped dumplings. I worked alone this time, but with loud music I soon settled into ‘the zone’, and a while later was sitting before an impressive heap of tiny, egg-filled empanadas!

(if you do this too, be sure to separate each layer of dumplings with baking parchment, or they’ll stick together; I missed a few and paid the price). I deep-fried those just before serving – with Bernhard’s assistance, so I could also eat…

This is the recipe for fried Uzbek dumplings, btw: Qovurma Chuchvara. It sounds delicious. Next time, maybe.

For Dessert, Bernhard arranged the baklava, halva, dried fruit & candied nuts beautifully. Idit lent me her tea set to complete the elegant feel.

The saffron-coloured crystal-sugar stirrers were a spontaneous purchase at the Persian deli –  and were a very pretty touch, don’t you think?

My personal favourite in all these was the Shurpa – that hot, spiced, tangy and heavy dish is to me everything a wintery soup needs to be. And the Plov was an easy second, with it’s falling-apart lamb meat and heady aroma. But everyone else favoured the Manti dumplings – so I’m so glad Idit and I took the trouble to make lots, and properly. I won’t be so nervous before making them next time!

Given that there were only five of us for dinner, this was far too much food; but that was not a problem. My kids and I went through the considerable leftovers with pleasure over several days! My son especially loved the beef Manti dumplings and wolfed those down.

Next it’s V, and Dorottya’s turn. 

After considering Vatican City for a while (which offers much in style but little in cuisine), she chose to take us to the Pacific island-nation of Vanuatu – let the straw skirts sway!!